Saturday, May 3, 2014

Weight

So I've got this nutrition class I'm taking. Most of the stuff I'm reading is stuff I knew since I was a kid. I've heard more about Omega-3 essential fatty acids growing up. Mom and Dad were always really big into that type of stuff. I figured this would be an easy class which is why I chose it as an elective rather than biology. However, it is forcing me to keep a food diary and exercise diary which is kind of bogus. I wish I had a scale so I could tell if watching what I eat and exercising more is actually doing me any good. Maybe I'll buy one, or maybe I can convince one of my friends to let me weigh in at her house.

So some of my homemade foods I'm not sure if they are recording the exact caloric intake because how can they possibly know the ingredients? Like, last night I ate homemade meatloaf for dinner so I chose the (homemade meatloaf) option on the food diary. (did I mention that this is an online thing?) It gave me a calorie count and protein and all that stuff count. Yeah, maybe it can guesstimate based on what ingredients people generally put in their meatloaf, but it cannot know. I refuse to eat only prepared foods just so I can know the exact caloric content, however. I love homemade stuff and it saves me a bit of money. Anyhow I didn't realize this was the week to do this so I didn't start recording stuff until yesterday evening and I hadn't exercised at all that day. I guess I'll have to make that up by exercising for 60 min today. That shouldn't be so hard, I have the girls and they love to get me moving. I just have to make sure I time it.

The other thing is, it won't let me choose options such as playing tag with kids on the exercise part of the program. How bogus is that? That is definitely exercise because it gets me out of breath. Perhaps I could put running for that. Just so long as I continue to do if for a period of time long enough to record. I wonder if lawn mowing can be selected, it's probably best to record that as walking. I wonder if it will let me do dancing or if I'll have to pick something like aerobic activity for that one. I guess I will have to figure it out. I have to write up the results on Sunday and that is my main assignment for the week.

I'm not doing too well in my studies mainly because I am not putting the amount of time into them that I should be. I seem to either be tied up with work or the kids or dealing with sis and I get so worn out from those things that I don't feel like studying in my free time. I just want to relax and watch anime or play games. However, I was able to get a good amount of schoolwork and housework done last week when I used a kitchen time to clean fifteen minutes and then study fifteen minutes on my day off. They only problem with that when I have the girls is they keep interrupting me. I get housework done with them here by letting them help me for a period of time as their chores. I gave each girl a choice of chore and oldest chose dishes so every day she helps me do dishes for fifteen minutes. Generally, that is plenty of time to wash most of a days dishes. Middle one chose laundry so every time I have clean clothes to fold she helps fold them. I wash clothes about every other day when I have the girls so I have plenty of clothes to fold at any given time. Youngest chose helping with the meals so when I prepare dinner she gets stuff for me and helps mix it. Middle child complains every time she has to do her chore that she wants to change her decision to something else. Perhaps I should rotate the chores or something instead. Anyway that helps me to get down to brass tacks and do the chores instead of procrastinating and it helps them to learn responsibility so it's a win-win.

I have some stuff around the house I have to fix as well but I need to get the place cleaner first. Last week I got every room basically clean and started scrubbing the kitchen floor. Then I thought about getting one of those stand up scrub brushes like they have at work. I could probably find one at a restaurant supply like they have in Waco.

Also, oldest has a field trip coming up Monday which I'm going to attend and it's an all day event, then Tuesday youngest will have to stay home since daycare is going to be closed. So I have two days off but may not be able to do much in the way of school work on either of them. Monday is out for sure because by the time I get home and get the kids fed and to bed it will be too late to get much done. I'm hoping to be able to take the summer off from college so I don't have to try and do school while I've got the girls all day long every day.

I think maybe after a couple of years it might be okay to leave oldest to watch the younger two while I work. That should be after they get to be old enough to not burn the house down in my absence. Until then, its working nights and weekends during the summer months, which is very tiring. Adding school work to that would just wear me out. I already know that I will not be done with school in time to be able to enroll in an on campus college by the start of the fall semester so why not just take a break over summer and finish my last three sets of classes afterwards. Then maybe I can sign up for an on-campus school in 2015.

So, barring some unseen event, I will be going down to corpus to visit my sisters and brother who live down there. Two of them may be moving out of state so I really want to make sure I see them before they go since I will unlikely have the funds to travel that far in the near future. I will be taking the girls as well so they can play on the beach and visit their aunts. I am hoping that the trip goes well and doesn't cost me too much money.

I'm planning this trip for the weekend after mother's day so I'll be letting you know how it goes. Planning to take the girls to the zoo for mother's day. That's what we did last year. We will be leaving right after I get off work. So that's quite a lot of gas I'll be using this month I know. I've got the trip to Corpus which is likely to take at least a whole tank to get there and one to get back so that's like $150, then a trip to Austin which is likely to take a whole tank $75 and a trip to Waco which is likely to take half to three quarters of a tank. $50, here's hoping that saving on daycare this summer helps out enough even though my hours will be cut because I can't start work until 5:30 on weekdays and will be working 2 till on Sat and open to 2 sun which are 8 hour shifts but working 5:30 till five days a week just doesn't make up those hours.

I kind of hope that maybe I can do some pet-sitting or something during the summer months while I've got the girls to make a little extra money.